The two largest operators of immigration detention centers in the United States are pouring money into Republican campaigns six days before the midterms, and their business is growing as they do. A subsidiary of the GEO Group has given $4.4 million to MAGA Inc., the super PAC backing President Trump, and another $1.3 million to the Congressional Leadership Fund, which fights to keep the GOP’s House majority, according to reporting by Scripps News and The Appeal.
Since Trump’s second term began, 62 people have died in ICE custody, and almost three-quarters of them were held in privately run facilities, The Appeal reported.
The companies’ PACs and executives have added to that. Private prison PACs gave about $774,000 this cycle and executives about $375,000, The Appeal found. Both the GEO Group and CoreCivic PACs gave the maximum $10,000 to Rep. Andrew Garbarino, R-N.Y., who chairs the House Homeland Security Committee. Sen. Ashley Moody, R-Fla., received roughly $48,000 from GEO PACs and executives, plus $20,000 to her supporting super PAC. Former CoreCivic chief executive Damon Hininger gave $215,000 to Republican candidates, the most of any prison executive.
The money tracks the contracts. GEO reported $1.44 billion in revenue for the first half of 2026, up 16% from a year earlier. CoreCivic reported $685 million for the second quarter, up 27%. GEO’s chairman, George Zoley, said: “Last year was the most successful period for new business wins in our company’s history.”
Black migrants are a small share of the people held and a large share of the people who report being hurt. A Black Alliance for Just Immigration analysis of federal data, presented in 2022 and cited by Capital B, found that Black migrants were about 6% of the ICE detention population but 28% of abuse-related calls to a detention hotline. They were less than 4% of detainees but 24% of people held in solitary confinement. And they were 5.4% of the undocumented population but 20.3% of those facing removal over criminal convictions.
Some of the giving runs through subsidiaries. Brendan Fischer of the Campaign Legal Center told Scripps News the companies use them to “avoid violating an FEC rule that bars contractors from giving to candidates,” which he called a “really big problematic loophole.”
Democrats running against Republicans who took the money include Angie Nixon in Florida, who is seeking to become the state’s first Black statewide elected official, and Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan. Election Day is Nov. 3.
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